Emma's Secret
by nikki003
Summary: Emma's hiding something and Jessie can tell, but will she find out in time to save her?
1. Chapter 1

Emma pushed the food on her plate around with her fork. She listened to the dinner conversation taking place between her nanny, Jessie, and her siblings, Luke, Zuri, and Ravi. Ravi was going on about school and how he'd done well on his latest math test. Luke told stories about his moment of victory, winning dodge ball in P.E. and Zuri complained about her substitute teacher at school. Jessie mediated the conversation making sure that everybody got to talk about their day.

"What about you Emma?" Jessie asked bringing Emma back into the present.

"Oh you know," Emma said, "the usual." She wouldn't look Jessie in the eye and she knew that Jessie had been growing more suspicious of her behavior.

"Are you feeling alright, Emma?" Jessie asked, "I've noticed that you haven't been eating a lot these past few days."

Emma just shrugged then forced a small smile on her face, "Yeah I'm alright," she lied, "I've just been feeling a little under the weather I guess." She sighed, doubting the Jessie believed her. The act was just as much for her younger brothers and sister not want to let on to anyone what was going on. "I think that I'm just going to go finish up my homework." Emma rose from the table and placed her plate and cup in the sink. Barely any of her food had been eaten, and despite Emma playing with her food to make it look like she had, Jessie knew she hadn't eaten dinner again.

"That's Bertram's cooking." Luke teased, "You know after eating his food I'm feeling a little queasy too." Luke gave a playful smile to Jessie, "I think that some ice cream would make me feel better though!"

Jessie smiled at him and laughed a little. The other children nodded their heads in agreement and held their stomachs and feigned stomach aches. "Okay" Jessie laughed, "But eat your vegetables first, then you may have some dessert." After dinner was finished and the bowls of ice cream had been scooped out, Jessie scooped out a forth bowl, left the other three children to delight in their ice cream, and went to check on Emma.

Jessie knocked on Emma's bedroom door lightly with her knuckles. "I have Ice cream." Jessie said softly, "May I come in?" Emma opened the door and Jessie followed her back into the room. Emma sat down on her bed and Jessie took a seat next to her. "I thought you might like some ice cream." Jessie handed her the bowl and Emma whispered a small thanks.

"I know something is going on." Jessie started, "I'm really starting to worry about you, is everything okay? Is there anything you want to talk about?" Emma shook her head but didn't meet Jessie's eyes. "Are you sure? You know I'm always here for you and whatever it is, I'm going to be on your side." Emma didn't move, she just looked down at the bowl of ice cream. Jessie sighed and gave Emma a tight hug. "I'm here for you when you're ready." With that she got up and walked out the door.

When she left, Emma put the bowl of ice cream on her night stand and went to stand in front of her full length mirror. She stared at herself for a long time, looking for any sign that she had changed. She lifted her shirt to get a better look at her body. What she saw in the mirror confirmed for her that she was doing the right thing, she knew she had to keep it a secret.


	2. Chapter 2

Emma walked through the halls of her school on the way to the cafeteria. She was feeling light headed and a little dizzy. She walked into the cafeteria and began looking for her friends. She had just seen Rosie and began making her way over to her when a wave of dizziness hit her. She had to reach out and grab onto the closest table for balance.

"Are you Okay?" Rosie asked as she held Emma upright.

"Yeah I think so just a little light headed from all that running in gym." Rosie nodded empathetically. She held on to Emma and steadied her as they mad their way over to the lunch table. Emma was stumbling and having trouble keeping her balance. _What was happening to her?_ She slowly lowered herself into the seat next to Rosie and hoped nobody else noticed how miserable she began to feel.

Rosie began talking with the other girls at their table. Emma pasted a smile on her face, pretending to listen. A rush of cold came over her body and her stomach dropped suddenly. She remembered seeing Rosie's face turn to panic and then she was staring at the ceiling. She laid passed out on the floor in the middle of the cafeteria.


	3. Chapter 3

Emma woke up in a hospital bed. Jessie was sitting by her side, holding her hand. Her father, Morgan, was pacing at the foot of her bed. A thin curtain separated Emma's bed from the rest of the bustling emergency room. The sounds of a crying toddler, the footsteps of doctors and nurses, and the sound of gurneys being wheeled in and out could all be heard throughout the ER.

Emma slowly opened her eyes and smiled when she saw Jessie at her side. "She's awake" Jessie said with a sign of relief. She gave Emma's hand a light squeeze and kissed her forehead. Morgan came to his daughter's side. He smiled at her, brushed the hair away from her face and leaned in and softly kissed his daughter's cheek.

"I am so glad that you're okay." Morgan looked around for a moment and realizing he couldn't see through the curtain he moved away from Emma and peaked his head out into the hallway. "I'll be right back," Morgan said to Emma, "I'm going to go find the doctor."

When he was gone Emma looked at Jessie for a moment, searching her face to see if she knew the truth. "Where's my mom?" Emma asked when she couldn't read her face.

"She is stuck on set but will come see you as soon as she can."

"Tell her not to bother, I'm fine"

Jessie sighed and sat down on the side of Emma's bed. "Sweetie are you going to tell me what's going on?" Emma turned her face away. "Are you pregnant?" Jessie had to choke out the words, she couldn't imagine this sweet little girl being in that kind of trouble.

"NO!" Emma yelled. She sat straight up in her bed. "Jessie, How could you even think something like that!"

Emma's outburst had startled Jessie and she moved herself off the bed. "You haven't been eating and have been sick lately. When you passed out today I just thought…"

"I've just been nervous about a test and forgot to eat breakfast this morning." Jessie looked at her keeping her gaze on Emma. "I swear, nothing is going on." Before Jessie could say anything Morgan walked back in with the doctor.

"See she's awake," Morgan gestured towards Emma, "Now get us our discharge papers so I can take my daughter home."

"I would strongly advise against that." The doctor stated, "we still haven't found the reason she passed out."

"You said that she was anemic and that caused it."

"I said it was a possibility, but I would really like to run a few more test on her first before we send her home." Morgan paused to think for a moment.

"Please daddy, I want to go home." Emma begged.

"You heard the girl, get us her discharge papers and we'll be on our way."


	4. Chapter 4

It was late. Jessie had just finished tucking Zuri, Ravi, and Luke into bed. It had been a long day, when she brought Emma home from the hospital the teen had locked herself in her room and hadn't come out since. Jessie had spent the day on auto pilot, going through the motions of her nanny duties, while she was worried sick over Emma.

Jessie knocked on Emma's door, "Emma, sweetie?" There was no answer. Jessie tried to open the door but it was locked. She removed a hair pin from her bun and put it inside the lock on the door. She jiggled it around and after a minute she heard a click signaling that the door had unlocked. She slipped the pin back into place in her hair and slowly opened Emma's door.

Emma was sitting on the edge of her bed, her hands folded in her lap. She kept her head down and didn't look at Jessie when she entered the room. She had her pajama's on, a pink tank top with white pants with light pink pin strips. She was looking thinner than usual, her thin frame looking fragile and the 15 year old appeared younger than her age.

Jessie approached her slowly and took a seat on the other side of the bed opposite Emma. There was a long silence between the two of them. "Emma," Jessie started and paused a moment to think about what she wanted to say, "you know that I care about you right?" Emma didn't say anything. Jessie moved to stand in front of Emma and kneeled down in front of her. Jessie held Emma's hands. "Emma you're like my family, I love you like family, and I'm worried about you."

"well don't." Emma said standing up and moving away from Jessie.

"Please, let me in. I just want to help you."

Emma began to sob and buried her head in her hands in complete despair. Jessie pulled her into her and hugged her tight. Emma wrapped her arms around Jessie the pair stood in the embrace and Emma finally allowed herself to trust Jessie. She pulled away from her and swallowed hard before finally speaking. "Jessie, I…" she words caught in her throat, "I, stopped eating" she couldn't bring herself to look into her face.

"What!" Jessie shouted, "why would you do something like that?"

"I'm fat and my friends are all thin, and boys only like thin girls, and I can't stand my body." She sobbed.

"Oh my god" Jessie whispered and pulled Emma back into a hug. This time she couldn't imagine letting her go.


	5. Chapter 5

"Jessie, please don't tell my parents!" Emma begged as she pulled herself out of the hug.

"Emma, I-"

"Jessie, please! They can't know about this please!" Emma began to sob again.

"Emma I can't keep this a secret from them. They're your parents, they love you and will want to help you."

"No they won't, they'll send me away. You don't understand they don't want anything like this to embarrass them. They are all over the news and they won't want this in the tabloids. I'll end up in rehab or something." Jessie just stared at Emma unsure of what to say, and Emma could tell that she was wearing Jessie down. "You said we were like sisters, as my big sister please, help me…please"

Jessie sighed, "Okay, but you have to start eating. I can't keep this a secret if you continue to starve yourself. But, if you start eating again I guess I can keep it on the DL."

"Thank you Jessie!" Emma said clapping her hands together.

"And you're going to start eating again?"

"Yes, yes I promise!"

Jessie smiled, "Great, hold on, I'll be right back." Jessie left the room and reappeared a few moments later holding a plate with a few cookies. "I thought you might be hungry since you hadn't eaten since we got back from the hospital. Now I know you must be hungry since you haven't eaten for a while, so I baked you some cookies earlier. I hope you like them." Jessie handed the plate to Emma.

"Thank you." Emma replied as she took the plate. "These look great." She made a show of sniffing the cookies and slowly took one to her lips and took a bite. She smiled at Jessie, "Goodnight," she said her mouth still full of cookies, "I'll eat these in bed." Jessie kissed the top of her head and left the room satisfied that she had seen Emma eat.

As soon as Emma heard Jessie's footsteps fade down the hall way she closed her bedroom door and ran to the bathroom. She spit out the cookie that was in her mouth into the toilet. She rinsed out her mouth with water making sure that not even one crumb made it to her stomach. Once she was sure all the cookie bits were washed out of her mouth, she dumped the rest of the plate into the toilet and flushed.


End file.
